What is the Normal Force Acting on a Chair with a Box on a Slanted Slope?

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around determining the normal force acting on a chair that supports a box positioned on a slanted slope. The participants are exploring the forces involved in this scenario, including gravitational forces and the effects of the slope.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Assumption checking, Problem interpretation

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss the components of forces acting on the chair and question whether the normal force is the sum of various gravitational forces. There is mention of drawing free body diagrams (FBD) to analyze the forces, and one participant considers a "cascading of forces" approach to understand the interactions better.

Discussion Status

The conversation is ongoing, with participants seeking clarification on the relationships between the forces and the setup of the problem. Feedback is being requested regarding the complexity of the free body diagrams and the interpretation of the forces involved.

Contextual Notes

There is some ambiguity regarding the specific masses involved and whether the scenario describes a single situation or multiple configurations. Participants are also questioning the impact of the box's motion on the normal force.

BSCS
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I'm trying to think up situations that will help me understand more complicated situations...

Let's say I have:

a box
on a slanted slope
on a chair
on the floor

The floor exerts a normal force on the chair. But, equal to what?

is it:

a box [tex]m_{1}gcos\theta[/tex]

on a slanted slope [tex]m_{2}g[/tex]

on a chair [tex]m_{3}g[/tex]

on the floor

Is it the sum of these?

Also, would motion of the box along the inclined plane affect the result? It would seem to be "no".
 
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Have you tried drawing a FBD?
 
Yes, and it/they were getting complex, so I wanted to get some feedback. I came up with the force exerted down on the chair as having an x component and a y component (different from what I posted). From there I was thinking I could apply that vector to the FBD of the chair and come up with my answer. Is such a "cascading of forces" approach correct?
 
BSCS said:
Yes, and it/they were getting complex, so I wanted to get some feedback. I came up with the force exerted down on the chair as having an x component and a y component (different from what I posted). From there I was thinking I could apply that vector to the FBD of the chair and come up with my answer. Is such a "cascading of forces" approach correct?
Yes, from what I understand you to have described that is correct. Perhaps if you posted you FBD's we could comment further.
 
BSCS said:
Let's say I have:

a box
on a slanted slope
on a chair
on the floor

The floor exerts a normal force on the chair. But, equal to what?

is it:

a box [tex]m_{1}gcos\theta[/tex]

on a slanted slope [tex]m_{2}g[/tex]

on a chair [tex]m_{3}g[/tex]

on the floor

Is it the sum of these?
Huh? Are you describing one situation (a box on a chair which is on a slanted slope?) or multiple situations? What are those masses?
 

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